Should I request more vegan friendly foods for the school canteen?
Monday, July 13th, 2009 at
3:39 pm
The only things the vegans at school can buy are apples and an ice block or water/juice. Should I put forward the idea of more vegan-friendly foods at school?
Tagged with: canteen • foods • Friendly • More • request • school • should • Vegan
Filed under: Organic Foods
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This is a great idea.
Suggest a range of home prepared salads perhaps? You can make ones with tofu and theres hundreds of easy recipies online.
Vegan lasagnas are also good because they can be made in bulk (good for canteen food), and even non vegans tend to like these.
Drinkswise, can you suggest the option of soy milkshakes? Okay, not the healthiest thing, but still something easy to make and would sell well (maybe also to people with allergies).
Do you have like a school student council? Try them or a friendly teacher. How many vegans/vegetarians at the school? Whoever runs the canteen is not going to want to make things that will become leftovers at the end of the day.
YES! I am a vegetarian and I find the same problem in my school’s cafeteria. I suggest starting a petition for Vegan options and submit it to the principal with a formal letter explaining why it needed and your personal opinions.
If the principal does nothing, go to the school board.
I think that is a very good idea. I went on a retreat which had all vegan food. Although I am used to vegetarian food, I was surprised at the range of vegan meals and how tasty they are. Also schools should be multi -cultural and different types of diet, such as vegan should be part of this.
If you have a school council, where the students can make requests, that would be a good time for making your request. Or use your school policy for making requests. However you do submit this, do make sure that you back it up with ideas of menus, so that it will be seen as a possible and sensible option.
It should be quite possible to adapt many of the current meals, so the initial menus should not be too much extra work. Pizzas and pasta meals, for instance, can easily be adapted to vegan recipes. Jacket potato with corn and bean salad. Bean burgers are liked by all! Some meat dishes could have soya bean substitute. Do check whether there are some already. It is often the case that the students are not informed of this.
Then you could suggest some delicious vegan meals that are different to the current school menu; such as ratatouille, vegetable curry, gumbo.
It is easy to prepare desserts which are vegan.
In the UK we have a site caleed Vegan Village, which delivers vegan ingredients and prepared foods. They also offer advice on nutrition. It would be worth finding out if there any vegan associations which can help your school kitchen in this way.
Its a good idea though you have to think…
How many vegans are at your school? The canteen has to cater to the needs of the students, not a few vegans…See what I’m saying?
I’m not dissing you, try at all means…I’m just thinking about how the canteen will react!
Absolutely. And if anybody objects, you can quote the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada:
“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. … Well-planned vegan and other types of vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fibre, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals.”
School authorities should support healthy eating habits for children, and in fact, should advocate a vegan lifestyle. A recent UN report states that animal farming leads to 51% of greenhouse gas emissions. People should be made aware and act responsibly if we want to survive on the planet.
They should have at least a salad bar at your school. I am surprised they do not have that. I thought all high schools had those in it by now. Not only would the salads be for vegans, but also for vegetarians and for people that want to eat a healthier lunch on days that they have only pizza or “slop”
One of the most difficult things to do in schools today is changing the menus in the cafeterias. All across America, students are subject to eating sub-standard food and only having the choice of getting junk food for snacks. This has become a major epidemic. If you have friends who agree that there should be healthier alternatives in the school system, perhaps you could start a petition between the students, parents and faculty. Presented with a list of these names, I don’t see how the school board could ignore trying to improve the quality of foods in their school. Do some research on the subject. There are some schools in California and Massachusetts for instance that have started their own community gardens on school premises. It has been a huge success and the idea has been spreading to schools all over the country. Good Luck!
Definatley
I am home-schooled, so I am not sure what kind of food a canteen has, but you should ask 
Yes. It will benefit everyone to have more healthy vegan-friendly options.